


The Potter-Weasley Winter Olympic quadrennial party tradition

by qkind



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, International Fanworks Day 2018, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Sports, Winter Olympics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-19 05:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13697892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qkind/pseuds/qkind
Summary: The Winter Olympics are more dangerous than the Triwizard Tournament. Naturally, the Potter-Weasley clan are fans.





	The Potter-Weasley Winter Olympic quadrennial party tradition

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Short Fanworks Challenge on AO3 to celebrate the International Fanworks Day!

The Potter-Weasley Winter Olympic quadrennial party tradition started like this:

 

“Harry mate, I need to escape the baby talk madness. Let’s put on the telly-vision and leave these two to their dilation and other traumatising things.”

 

“ _Please_ , yes, let’s see if there’s some footie match on or something.”

 

And so Ron and Harry were hiding in the living room hopping channels on TV hoping to find something, when they caught the Women’s Snowboard Halfpipe final of the Winter Olympics of Turin 2006. 

 

“Merlin’s beard! I thought muggles needed planes to fly!”

 

“It’s called snowboarding, it’s a sport. They’re not really flying,” Harry’s mouth was, despite his apparent knowledge, hanging open just as Ron’s.

 

“So you’ve done this? Snowboarded?”

 

“No, I never went further out of London with the Dursleys. I think Hermione went skiing once? Do you remember, first year?”

 

“Hermione!”

 

“Shh, Ron! Baby talk, remember?” Harry was still covering Ron’s mouth with his hand, muffling his protests, when Hermione and Ginny came into the living room.

 

“What? Oh! It’s the Winter Olympics!”

 

Harry let go of Ron as Ginny sat on his lap, punching the air out of him, and Hermione sat between him and Ron.

 

“I thought muggles could only fly on planes!” said Ginny, who had joined the contest for lowest jaw drop.

 

“That’s exacty what I said! They have more style than Dumbledore.”

 

“Honestly Ronald, it’s a _sport_ , they’re not flying. Mind, these are professionals, you can’t get on a board and simply be able to do these tricks.” Hermione got the remote and checked the teletext, eliciting three cries of outrage. “Look, there’s skeleton after this, then speed skating, then biathlon, and tomorrow… yes! Pair ice skating first thing in the morning! Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve watched any Olympics, I don’t even know the British athletes who are competing!”

 

Harry, and especially Ron and Ginny, were looking a bit confused but a lot excited. Ginny looked at Harry, who looked back at her, and together they proclaimed:

 

“Potter-Weasley Winter Olympics party!”

 

-~-

 

If snowboard had Ginny and Ron shouting at the telly whenever a rider jumped particularly high or turned a particularly large number of times, skeleton made Ron literally hide his face in Hermione’s hair because he couldn’t bear to look, while Ginny very seriously said, “I could do that,” and Harry replied, “of course you could.”

 

Biathlon made the four of them question the sanity of the inventor of the sport, who thought it’d be a great idea to mix skiing and shooting.

 

After that the competition was over for the day, but they were showing a hockey match from that morning, between the USA and Russia, who were according to the commentators two of the favourites for the gold medal.

 

“We’re buying James and Albus skates first thing in the morning,” said Ginny.

 

“Albus isn’t born yet, love,” said Harry. 

 

“Never too early to start. But compromise: we’re buying James skates and skis.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“Rose too.”

 

“Not a chance, Ron.”

 

Ron pouted a bit, but kissed Hermione’s very pregnant belly and could be heard whispering to it that her darling baby would get her skis at the very least.

 

-~-

 

In the morning they discovered that ice skating made Harry literally cry with the emotion, which he unsuccessfully tried to hide and so they naturally teased him about, but agreed to watch every single ice skating event with him from then on.

 

Ginny was over the moon when she discovered that there were still more hockey matches to look forward to. Harry thought she liked the violence of it all.

 

Ron hid behind the sofa when they discovered that not only muggles were crazy enough to invent skeleton, but also luge, bobsleigh, and variations of them with pairs, fours, and even relays. That was also reason for much teasing.

 

Hermione seemed to get melancholy every time they caught a skiing event, and the other three could foresee the moment she would come home with a skiing retreat fully organised for them all. They shared some loaded looks but didn’t say anything because, well, it sounded like fun.

 

And James, poor James, saw what he could expect to happen when Albus was finally born; namely, a complete lack of attention paid to him by the adults. That said, the short track speed skating event worked better than any cartoon ever had to keep him entertained for a while.

 

-~-

 

And so it was that when the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang arrived, the Potter-Weasley Winter Olympic quadrennial party had not only become a tradition, but extended to the rest of the family and friends. Naturally, that meant it devolved into chaos within minutes of the opening ceremony starting.

 

“Lily Luna Potter! No skiing inside the house!”

 

“But there’s no snow outside!”

 

Ginny turned to look at George, who was wearing an innocent expression that fooled absolutely no one.

 

“Tell me you didn’t turn my house into a ski track.”

 

“Technically I didn’t, dear sister, I just gave my niece the new Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes special winter product, a Snow Bomb to turn any staircase into the perfect artificial track for alpine descent.”

 

“For the first year ever, women will be able to compete in ski jumping! Whoo!” Ginny’s and George’s eyes bugged opened at that and they ran to the stairs, but didn’t manage to get there before they heard a very pained _ow_ and Ginny’s heart almost stopped working for the first, but not last, time that day.

 

Back in the kitchen Hermione was hugging Harry while he bawled in semi-private because he had seen his favourite skater for these games when the Olympic Athletes of Russia came into the stadium waving the Olympic flag, already envisioning the perfection that would be her free program. 

 

Then the door to the kitchen banged open and in came Teddy.

 

“Harry! Aunt Hermione! I tried to ice the lake to skate with James but I didn’t do it thick enough and James fell in!”

 

And so two more hearts were a bit closer to failure that night.

 

In the living room Ron, Charlie and Bill were discussing the merits of short track speed skating 500 metres versus 1500 metres, while Arthur explained in detail to Percy and Angelina the inner workings of a Zamboni. Even Percy looked like he was looking for an escape.

 

But despite all the chaos, when the torch was finally lit every single member of the extended family was sitting in various places in the living room surrounding the TV, and when the ceremony was over, children and adults went to rest for the day, knowing that the week ahead would be one of staying up late or getting up early, and getting their hours of sleep whenever they could.

 

Skis and skates went back into the shed, snow was cleared from the stairs so that everyone could get to their bedrooms, and alarms were set so no one forgot the time of their favourite events. 

 

The Potter-Weasley Winter Olympic quadrennial party had officially begun.

**Author's Note:**

> Any innaccuracies about the games are because either it suited me - ehem the women' ski jump event was introduced in Sochi ehem - or because I have no idea about sport other than what I learn when I watch it on TV. 
> 
> Come say hi on [tumblr](http://maqqneto.tumblr.com)!


End file.
